Top Five Most Dangerous Recipe Mistakes
Errors, Misunderstandings, and Misidentifications with Bad Results
Jun 21, 2009
These cases show that cooks can't always believe everything they read in recipes. Chefs and editors can sometimes be mistaken.
Antony Worrall Thompson's Henbane Vs. Fat Hen
Chef Antony Worrall Thompson is used to being in the media as a celebrity chef, but in August 2008, he was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Worrall Thompson gave an interview to Healthy and Organic Living magazine where he said he used the wild plant Henbane in his salads.
Henbane, though, is also known as stinking nightshade and is highly toxic. It's fatal, even in low doses, and was made famous as the poison of choice for Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who was found guilty of murdering his wife in 1910.
The editors of the magazine caught the error and sent a letter to subscribers, and Worrall Thompson himself stated that he meant to recommend Fat Hen, a member of the spinach family.
Carole Walter's Great Cakes
Carole Walter is celebrated by some to be one of the best baking cookbook authors. Her 1991 book, Great Cakes, won the James Beard Foundation Best Baking and Dessert Cookbook award in 1992.
But that same book had 40,000 copies recalled and a reprinted edition released by publisher Ballantine Books, all because of a single recipe appearing in the book. A Dec. 25, 1992 blurb in Entertainment Weekly explained why: The toxic Lily of the Vally was listed as an ingredient.
According to Botanical-online.com, all parts of this plant are poisonous, and is fatal if eaten in large amounts.
Aunt Vertie's Sugar Cookies
For the July 1991 edition of Gourmet magazine, Helen Gustafson submitted her aunt's cookie recipe, one of the ingredients for which was wintergreen extract. But, as noted in an Aug. 7, 1991 article in the New York Times, "Magazine Corrects a Cookie Recipe," Gourmet's editors couldn't find that exact item in their local stores, so they changed the recipe to include 1/4 teaspoon of oil of wintergreen.
One problem: While oil of wintergreen can be used as a flavoring in tiny amounts, the amount called for in the recipe is dangerously close to being toxic if ingested. Oil of wintergreen is more commonly used in liniments used for rubbing on sore muscles. If eaten, it is potentially lethal in amounts as little 4/5 of a teaspoon.
The Times article mentions that Gourmet sent out a letter to its subscribers telling them not to use oil of wintergreen, but after the letter was sent the magazine was contacted by readers who did not feel well eating cookies made by following the original recipe.
Stir-Fried Morning Glory
In the Jan. 25, 2007 edition of Britain's Observer newspaper, an article featuring Thai recipes included the instructions for "Stir-fried morning glory or spinach." The Southeast Asian morning glory, Ipomoea aquatica or morning spinach, was the intended ingredient.
On March 5, 2007, the Observer issued a clarification and a warning. "This should not to be confused with the UK Ipomoea, also known as morning glory, which is poisonous." It also amended its online article with the warning in two separate places not to use the UK plant.
Onion in Pet Food Recipe
Dogs are not exempt from errors in their recipes. The Arizona Daily Star had to run a correction on a Feb. 8, 2007 column that gave a recipe for dog food where one of the ingredients was onion, with an option to add garlic.
The correction, published Feb. 15, quoted Michael Lent, president of the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association, as saying that both onion and garlic are potentially toxic to dogs. The website for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals lists both garlic and onion as causing the breakdown of red blood cells, blood in the urine, weakness, and high heart rates in dogs.
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